Regional Water System Important For County Residents

August 25, 2013

As chairman of the Chadwick Bay Regional Development Corporation I would like to state how important I feel a regional water system is to our area.

I understand everyone's concerns and questions but you have to remember if a regional water board is formed we will be looking as a group at how to deliver water to the resident water customers and businesses in the most cost effective, safe, reliable way and of good quality and quantity.

This is a big step for the city of Dunkirk and also for all the producers of water including the village of Fredonia and village of Brocton but, without everyone coming together the cost to do the necessary upgrades alone will drive the water rates higher for all the water customers and businesses in all the communities.

We all know how important the NRG plant is to the area and in a similar way, a regional water system is equally important. We need to provide the necessary water at the most affordable cost to our current business and water customers along with attracting new residents and businesses. If we don't, we will continue to lose businesses and jobs because of not having the ability to deliver the necessary water at a stable price.

As Supervisor for the Town of Portland, I know that it is the town board's responsibility to look for the most cost effective way to purchase water for our water district residents, be it from the village of Brocton, city of Dunkirk or else where. If you looked at this from a business point of view you would be asking - how do we keep our cost down and how can we expand our customer base? A regional system is definitely something to explore.

I realize everyone has a lot of concerns and questions but we need to look hard at proceeding forward with this North County Regional Water System. By letting the County be the lead applicant to submit a grant application to the Western New York Regional Economic Development Council through the NYS consolidated funding application process, we have taken a very important step forward to keep the process going.

In addition to the villages of Brocton, Silver Creek, and the towns of Portland, Pomfret, Dunkirk, Sheridan and Hanover, I would like to thank the City of Dunkirk Common Council for renewing their commitment to continue as a partner in the Chadwick Bay Regional Development Corporation.

We all need to continue to work together to explore ways to provide the services to our residents and businesses in the most cost effective ways. I played and coached a lot of sports over the years and learned that to be successful you have to change the word "I" to "we" to become a team and then anything becomes possible. Together we, the Chadwick Bay team of communities, are all working toward the same goal - to provide the best services to our residents, businesses and customers.